Europe will focus on tackling the social factors affecting public health if a new European health policy framework is adopted as expected in Malta next week.
The policy will be the centrepiece of the annual World Health Organisation European Region meeting, which will take place at the Hilton in St Julian’s from Monday to Thursday.
“It puts focus on the conditions in which people are born, grow up, live and age, and how these conditions on their opportunities to be healthy,” WHO regional director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab said in Valletta yesterday.
Health ministers and senior officials from 53 countries will vote on the ambitious eight-year policy framework for health and well-being, entitled Health 2020.
WHO started work on the policy two years ago at the request of member states and delegates will discuss and endorse it next week.
The framework is not binding – it is a “policy umbrella” aimed at helping countries in the region to “achieve their health potential by 2020”, Ms Jakab said.
Health 2020 recommends that European countries address population health through whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches. To inform the development of Health 2020, WHO commissioned a study across the 53 regional states.
“Its preliminary findings confirm that poverty continues to be the greatest threat to people’s health, regardless of a country’s development,” Ms Jakab said.
The study stressed that Europe cannot improve the health of its citizens if it does not deal with the problems of poverty, unemployment, education, living conditions and healthcare access.
Next week’s meeting will also involve discussions on the WHO Healthy Ageing Strategy, which is the first ever strategic document in the region on this topic.
The aim of this is to promote healthy behaviour and the provision of age-friendly environments across Europe, where life expectancy is higher than ever.
Health Minister Joe Cassar said Malta was very proud to be hosting a WHO regional meeting for the first time.
Malta invited WHO to host a meeting in Malta at the 58th session in Georgia in 2008 and the invitation was endorsed the following year at the 59th meeting in Copenhagen.
“To say lots of planning has gone into the organisation of this meeting would be an understatement,” Dr Cassar said.
The minister added that the Maltese Government welcomed and shared the priorities of Health 2020.
“I have always said that we are the Ministry of Health, not the Ministry of Illness. We share the Health 2020 vision of focusing on prevention and healthy ageing,” Dr Cassar said.